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tv   News Nation  MSNBC  February 26, 2013 11:00am-12:00pm PST

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c max has more passenger volume than competitor prius v and we haven't even mentioned... c-max also gets better mpg. say hi to the super fuel efficient ford c-max hybrid. hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. "news nation" is following the million hoodie march. last year, this was the scene as thousands gathered to demand george zimmerman be arrested and charged with the teen's death.
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a moment of silence to be observed 7:17 p.m. eastern time the exact time martin was shot according to police. martin's mother spoke to msnbc's thomas roberts a short time ago. >> we are leaning on each other. we're leaning on the rest of the family and also friends. i don't know if we're ready emotionally. we'll take a look at a time and just thank god for each day. >> george zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges and remains in seclusion awaiting an april 2nd hearing to determine if the actions fall under florida's stand your ground law. a florida task commission of governor scott returned the final report supporting the law. recently, george zimmerman's brother appeared on "realtime with bill maher" and said stand your law should not be a factor in this case. >> you get in to the slippery
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slope of homicide or not. you are not considering a retreatable position slamming your head in to the concrete repeatedly after they have broken your nose. there's no ability orca pastie at that time and since the shooting, george zimmerman raised more than $300,000 through the defense fund website. let's bring in the managing editor of the brio.com and jonathan capehart and kevin cunningham starting the petition to bring national attention to the trayvon martin case. thank you all for joining us. jonathan, as i mentioned, we know that george zimmerman and attorneys have a website where they have accepted donations and taken to the internet to respond to editorials and comments out there specifically yours, jonathan. they quite a couple of editorials you wrote in the month of february and in response to one of them, they say, regarding you, he must also overlook the significant forensic evidence that supports
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george's claim of self defense and the fbi documents related to the civil rights investigation showed no evidence george acted in a racially motivated way. mark o'mara is still fighting the public perception that this is about race as much as it is about the stand your ground law and he cites your editorial specifically, jonathan. >> well, look. i mean, if anyone has read all of the things i have written, i have not talked about directly the racial aspects of of this case. what attorney o'mara is pointing to is the federal investigation in to whether hate crime charges should be handed down against george zimmerman. i never talked about that. in fact, a first piece i wrote regarding that cautioned people that the bar for meeting the federal standard for hate crimes laws is very high and so not to put all their hope in that. look, the facts of this case are so -- are damning on their own
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and unarmed kid trying to get back to the place he was staying is, you know, catches the attention of a neighborhood watch guy who has a gun and a fatal confrontation happens and that kid is dead and for mark o'mara and robert zimmerman jr. to say stand your ground is not a factor here because george zimmerman was not in the position to retreat is laughable because the stand your ground law says quite specifically that someone does not have the duty to retreat at all. >> yeah. it's interesting you bring up stand your ground because in the same document mark o'mara an enthe attorneys representing george zimmerman said it's a traditional self-defense case. joann, i want to read something else from mark o'mara saying the foctfocus of zimmerman of a conviction cheapens the conversation and threatens to drive us further apart.
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if the zimmerman case is to be the catalyst of conversation about race, then we oh it to ourselves to have a complete and nuanced understanding of the factors involved. they want to remove this issue of race because in their opinion there's no proof of this. this is about self defense in their mind and when you read the blogs and so many other things for many americans, this did boil down to race and does it still at this point with what we know and the leaks coming out from both sides? >> yeah. it's interesting. talking to mark o'mara, he does come back to this idea of equating the actions with racism and very fixiated on that point. >> that's a fear to seep in to the jury. >> exactly. seeping in to the jury and not only that but what i think mark o'mara is talking about is racism but what the trayvon martin attorneys, i talked with one of those attorneys, they're talking about racial profiling. they may blend in peoples' minds but what the trayvon martin
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parents have said, what their attorneys have said is not that george zimmerman is a racist. i don't think jonathan capehart written anything like that. they're talking about racial profiling of young black men and i think a lot of ways it's illustrative of the problem in the country. people are having two conversations. a lot of african-americans are saying racial profiling is a problem but on the zimmerman side, saying don't call him a racist. >> we have the host of msnbc's "politics nation." thank you for your time. as the orlando sentinel pointed out and you are quoted in this article, the nation is waiting. do you believe from this point that the people have essentially put this in the hands of the justice system, believing in our system of law? >> well, i think we're going to see if the proceedings are fair and we'll be monitoring to see that it's fair and therefore that we are investing faith
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wrongly. i think that what is important, tamron, as i was listening to the discussion, when i got involved in the case of the attorney benjamin crumb pet working with the action jackson network on other cases and came and said he wanted to try to bring it national and help the petition drive go national, we were doing a good job and we called the rally that became the big rally that led to the special prosecutor. where race became involved, i think people need to be very careful. not with zimmerman. it's when the local police made a decision to let zimmerman walk and said there was no evidence of probable cause. and there had been tensions in sanford between the local community and the police department. it was our contention that the police department had violated the rights of trayvon martin.
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it was never about zimmerman in the beginning. it was how can the police say, we're going to decide zimmerman was innocent. i think mr. o'mara and others would do themselves well to understand that had the police proceeded the way the prosecutor has now proceeded, this may have never been a national issue. >> and reverend, you know, speaking a year later, sanford said it's made a lot of changes and working to fix what they refer to as long-standing distrust of the black community of the police department. we saw the police department, fire the chief at the time. a year later, we still wait on this case to make the way through the justice system but as far as the community, do you see any improvement at least as far as even of dialogue here or is it too soon? >> i think we are seeing dialogue. i think there's been some moves forward but that's why i raised the fact that it was not groups like action jackson network and
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naacp that brought race in it. when you have them not admitting there's longstanding feelings of racism there and called in civil rights groups. they acted as though there was -- this was a whole oasis of racial harmony until we came to town. now they're admitting there was tensions and that the police chief was removed so we did not come in to bring in racism but to respond and it wasn't about the shooter. it was about the decisions of the local police department that had consistently raised these tensions. >> thank you so much for joining me. let's bring in kevin cunningham, he started the petition, brought the eyes and ears to this case on twitter. kevin, it is incredible. the panel mostly african-american and this case resonated with all races and people were surprised showing your face that the dynamic of it
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was started by a white person who saw what you believe was injustice in this case. how do you feel a year later? >> i feel largely unresolved, i suppose. the case still needs to play itself out and that's a whole aspect of it. but i feel like we have in large part missed an opportunity to have a greater conversation about race in this country. i think it's such a hot button sort of emotional subject for people that they hear the word and retract in to their sort of positions and don't have an honest dialogue about it. the points earlier were very astute and a difference of the structure of racism in the police department not charging zimmerman in this case and that reflective of a long history of frankly young black males in the country not having rights respected and right to their freedom and person for being intruded on by the police or in this case a neighborhood kind of vigila vigilant. so that is separate from the issue of whether or not zimmerman himself is racist and
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i think we have largely missed the opportunity to talk about those kind of structural racist opportunities. >> you went online on twitter. i remember when i first started receiving tweets of people saying why aren't we doing this story and then had you on. do you believe without that dynamic, and giving you a voice, you were able to get the eyes and ears on this story? >> no. that's i think frankly i have lived in a lot of different places in america. i've been around and just in my gut and my spirit i know that american people are good people, kind. we love each other. we don't believe in killing each other and particularly don't believe in killing children and once you filter through the cultural interference at the basis point, the people in the country are good and do not want to see tragedies like this happen and i think if we can get to a point to focus, we can build from that. >> you know florida, a home state, i believe, in fact. this stand your ground law, you have a task force coming back
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with a conclusion there's a valid reason to have the stand your ground law in florida. >> it is interesting because the stand your ground aspect of this is kind of a model. the two people who authored the bill said this is not a stand your ground case. you have mark o'mara, george zimmerman's lawyer, saying this is not a stand your ground case. now everyone seems to agree but the upshot of that is the law of florida -- >> they're not alone. several states have this law. >> florida was a test case and now proliferated around the case. they don't seem to be going anywhere. >> jonathan, this also again comes at a time talking about gun safety, gun control. trayvon martin's parents taken over basically as activists and talking about newtown and other tragedies. does this properly fit in the current conversation on gun control? >> yes, it does.
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sabrina fulton would tell you so. i interviewed her on friday about this very subject and she said, you know, she hopes that people use her case, use this case as an example to stand up and to push back against gun violence. she said death is unavoidable but violent crime is. and so, she is personally making the link between the tragedy she's suffered and what she says she hopes no other parent or no one else should have to go through and what's happened in newtown and around the country every day. >> jonathan, thank you. kevin and joann, always a pleasure. now former florida federal prosecutor and nbc news legal analyst, kendall coffey. thank you for joining me. in this document responding to jonathan's editorial, they have the donations in over $300,000 as i mentioned and say that the case is a traditional self-defense case. how is that different than the stand your ground or will that
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play any role in this upcoming hearing we are expecting on the 22nd? >> well, just to be clear, the hearing is a stand your ground hearing under a that law and seeking to invoke the law for immunity of prosecution as well as from civil suit. to me, it's a fair bit of say to say it's not a stand your gound case and trying to get out messagewise is that zimmerman had no duty to retreat because he couldn't retreat. according to o'mara's version, zimmerman himself was the victim on the ground and pummeled. so it's very clear that stand your ground is the core of their defense. and whatever they call it, however they spin it, that's what the judge is deciding presumably in late april. >> will we see, for example, the photograph that was released by the attorneys for george zimmerman that showed damage to the nose, the blood down the back of the head? just take me through the tick tock if you will of what will likely happen on that day. >> well, they're going to load
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up heavily on the evidence of zimmerman's injuries and there's injuries. no question about it. what i think the -- they're also going to have to do is put zimmerman on the stand and wild card and plenty of risk to open up what i think is a central part of the prosecution's strategy. they understand that there's no surviving witness to the shooting to contradict what zimmerman is going to say but what they believe is zimmerman's inconsistencies, the shift of story and adding details, subtracting and changing details is going to be in the end the ticket to the jailhouse because if zimmerman is seen as lying about his explanations for killing tray jon martin, that's enough to convict by itself even if his head got bruised and bloodied and his nose broken. >> kendall, george zimmerman sued nbc universal for defamation. the company strongly denies the allegation and factors in to all of the media attention here.
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i can't stop going back to the orlando sentinel. their line, the nation waits here. we know whatever is decided all eyes are on this and quite honestly, mark o'mara and the family of trayvon martin both know it and coming out from the internet to the television interviews. >> this court litigated heavily in the court of public opinion as it is in the court of law and o'mara places the client at every turn. a victim of an overzealous media and false accusation of racism. he's got to have in effect his own subplot as to why prosecutors believe that his client's guilty of second-degree murder. in this case, this case got so inundated with pretrial publicity that it was a prosecutor's and very rare move for a prosecutor to try to get a gag order. the judge denied the gag order. the pretrial publicity and the spinning will continue right up
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until now until trial. >> all right. kendall coffey thank you for your time. >> thank you. another day of talk and no action on the sequester. >> move the bill in the house twice. we should not have to move a third bill before the senate gets off that you are ass and begins to do something. >> profanity there. the ramped up rhetoric to say the least comes as the president visits a shipyard in virginia saying workers could lose their jobs if the cuts go through. plus, a tea party senator is warning speaker boehner that he could lose his position if he supports tax revenue. we'll tell you more about that. and join our conversation on twitter. you can find us @tamronhall and @newsnation. with the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles
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welcome back. president obama just issued his latest warning about the effects of those automatic budget cuts. the president spoke as a naval shipyard in virginia under fire from republicans in congress. >> because of the automatic cuts, about 90,000 virginians who work for the department of defense would be forced to take unpaid leave from their jobs. i just had to be honest with you. there's too many republicans in congress right now who refuse to compromise even an inch when it comes to closing tax loopholes and special interest tax breaks. that's what's holding things up right now. >> for 16 months the president is traveling over the country holding rallies instead of sitting down with senate leaders to try to forge an agreement over there in order to move the
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bill. we have moved the bill in the house twice. we should not have to move a third bill before the senate gets off their ass and begins to do something. >> what? in the senate, a few hours ago, the democratic and republican leaders took to the floor once again to blame democrats. >> the only republicans in america that don't support this balanced approach are the republicans who serve here in congress. >> the deal we struck was that an exchange for avoiding a second vote before the election the debt limit would be paired with spending cuts only. spending cuts only. and would not involve a tax increase. >> joining me now live the political panel. today, strategist blake zeff. no profanity. chicago sun times columnist, washington bureau chief, lynne sweet. >> blake, lind say gram we haha
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have learned and jahmeshia discussing the sequester. pair it with what senator graham said on cnn just yet. let me play it. >> we'll criticize everything he does. mr. president, it is now up to you to find the $85 billion in savings and we'll make it easier for you but we'll criticize the decision. this is a bipartisan problem. i voted against this deal because it would destroy defense. lousy way to cut $1.2 trillion and which is achievable. i'm willing to raise revenue, raise $600 billion of new revenue if the democratic friends reform entitlements and fix sequestration together. >> he says fix it together but the top of the comment says every decision the president makes we'll criticize. how do you make heads or tails of that? >> the truth is even if lindsay graham is willing to meet halfway, no republicans on the
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house share this point of view. you can have a meeting with president obama and be lovely, i'm sure, but the end of the day this is a republican controlled house of representatives that wants to cut spending, cut government. that's the philosophy. they're thrilled this is happening. and that's, you know, they have no desire to compromise. not going to happen if things remain. >> to the point of republicans in the house, tea party republican senator warned today that house speaker john boehner could lose the speakership agreeing to tax hikes. >> sure. that's what i hear from people on the hill who are republicans, long-time republican, capitol hill operatives say it's an opportunity of automatic spending cuts. excited about it. republicans do not want to do anything where they have to give up revenues or tax increases when they're getting free if you will spending cuts anyway. >> speaker boehner in the midst of a threat in his party for potential actions. >> right. i don't think he's going to as a result of that. i think ron johnson is in the
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senate and i think he is accurately characterizing the view of most house republicans. >> absolutely. lynne, i want to play what majority leader eric cantor said regarding this mixed message of republicans and highlight cantor because the president was in his home state of virginia today and look at in the one news c conference the different versions of cantor. >> we heard the president say last week that he was going to be forced because of the sequestration to let criminals loose on the street. if he didn't get another tax cut. this is a false choice. president's off campaigning in my state of virginia. yes, we are very, very concerned about the impact on the commonwealth as we are on all states. >> went from very concerned, the second part to beginning the president is giving false choices. isn't that the heart of problem for republicans at this point?
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they're seeing it i guess with double vision. >> yes, tamron. the cantor, you know, he had to say something because obama's at a shipbuilder in newport news in his state but there's false choices all over the place in this debate. what it really says, this is a case where obama spent a lot of his speech today blaming republicans. he needs maybe at this stage a new idea, a new idea to see if you avoid the sequester and no one thinks now could be avoided. the republicans have offered to see if there's another way of structuring the cuts so that cabinet secretaries have more discretion and by the way on the point that criminals will be let out of prisons, i don't think that is going to happen from any briefing we have gotten from the federal government. >> criticize that portion of the president's remarks and seems to go beyond what was reasonable even in thought here but 45% would blame republicans in congress. 32% would blame the president.
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13% would blame both and in december, 53% blaming republicans and 27% the president. a few more saying they would blame the president and hearing more and more people even though that support president obama expressing a sense of frustration between both the president and the similar speech and remarks heard from him now and the republicans having to now resort to even profanity of speaker boehner to get attention i guess to wake people up. they said when you can't get someone's attention say a swear word and it might help. >> i won't use a swear word. >> thank you. >> though i know a few. obama is not an innocent bystander in this. he isn't a third party just making comments and how you need to pressure republicans. i think in his speech today in newport news, he was putting too much of the job on outside groups, outside people pressuring congress. he -- i would think he should
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have said something more and meantime i'm doing this and that. mccain and graham going to the white house today where they'll probably touch on everything, probably has more to do on coming to some bipartisan agreement on immigration than avoiding the sequester. >> the optics is here are these people fierce critics of the president, john mccain on just about everything entering the white house, whether to talk about immigration reform or if it's to have a beer summit, they're walking in so the optics of that at least gives a view of these people having the ability to meet and talk over something. >> well, yes. it's always giving the upper hand to whoever's the president when someone comes to them rather than the other way around. it's rare obama or any president would go to a senator's office for a meeting and they just can't go to a saloon and have a cocktail to discuss this. >> maybe they should. maybe it would work better. thank you. coming up, just returning
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just yesterday from the bipartisan trip to mali. that is where french troops are now battling islamic rebels. we'll talk about the possibility of the u.s. taking a greater role in that country with aid. and in less than an hour, president obama will sit down with two of his most vocal republican critics as mentioned. john mccain, lindsay graham headed to the white house. first read team will join us with scoop on the meeting in a few hours. what could be accomplished? we'll find out. but first, today's money minute, here's a look at wall street. "news nation" is back in three. [ man ] i've been out there most of my life. you name it...i've hooked it. but there's one... one that's always eluded me. thought i had it in the blizzard of '93. ha! never even came close.
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♪ ♪ no two people have the same financial goals. pnc works with you to understand yours and help plan for your retirement. visit a branch or call now for your personal retirement review. welcome back. a group of bipartisan lawmakers just returned from a fact finding mission inside mali's deadly war zone. the four americans met with
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military officials in the country's capital and discussed how the u.s. can help mali regain control from islamic rebels. french troopses are involved in what officials call quote very violent fighting in the northern part of the country. joining me now, two politicians of the delegation, senator chris coons and karen bass of california. thank you both for joining us. >> thank you, tamron. >> absolutely. senator, on your trip, you were quoted saying the u.s. likely to eventually resume direct support of mali's military but only after democracy through elections. you have americans wondering why to supply direct military support and why was it so important to go there? >> it was responsibility for the delegation to go there to meet with the american ambassador and meet with the military commanders who are both leading
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the multilateral african force. we met with the major general of nigeria and with the minister of defense from mali and his leadership. and with the french military commander and to get a briefing from our own diplomatic and intelligence community about the situation on the ground and to have a chance to question the french, the malian and military commanders about how they saw the path forward. we had a chance to meet with some of the folks who fled from the north and seeking shelter in the south and to hear from them personally about what circumstances were like in timbuktu and some of the northern cities where they have suffered under jihadist rule over nine to ten months. >> congresswoman, this is an example where we as americans must keep our eye on the ball, for example, in mali. we saw what happened in somalia and yemen, as well, where groups linked to al qaeda or jihadists
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infiltrate and potentially be a threat to this country. >> absolutely. and i have to say that another meeting we had that was very critical was with the interim president. but you know, if you look at the situation in many of these countries, until you address the underlying social and economic conditions, especially with very young populations, when you have tens of thousands of young people who are unemployed and they feel as though they have no hope and no future, then they're perfectly susceptible to al qaeda or other problematic groups like that so i think it's important to contribute. we are continuing to contribute humanitarian aid and we need to support the malians preparing for elections in july and make sure that they have good gompb na governance and address the underlying problems that -- >> we know that people will hear the comments and say, wait a minute, we are in the middle of the sequester debate and talking about cuts to defense, cuts to the department of justice. domestic programs here.
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and we're looking at assisting this country. why is it important? >> well, i think it's very important to stability and to our national security here. but you know, having said that, there's no reason for us to have the sequester. this is a self-imposed problem and i think the congress both sides of the aisle need to come together and the republicans in my house i think want to see the sequester move forward because they have a problem and their belief as to the size of government should be and they're not recognizing the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of jobs that will be lost if the sequester moves forward. >> senator, as i mentioned, we are in the middle of the stalemate. no meetings planned here and talking about assisting another country and certainly you can point to the threat that it could pose if things get out of hand in mali but you have folks looking at potential job loss here and may wonder where the priorities lie. >> tamron, i think part of why it was important to go and visit mali and see conditions on the
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ground was to further understand how how real and significant a threat al qaeda and the islamic iqim poses to mali and the countries in the region. three americans were killed in algeria just a few weeks ago in a terrorist-led kidnapping and attack on a gas facility in the desert and the same folk who is led the attack on the benghazi component linked remotely to the folks taking action in northern mali and just this week, the french military seized i think 35,000 tons of libyan arms that had been relocated to the deserts in the north of mali. this is an area the size of texas and al qaeda affiliates seeking to use it as a new base from which to launch attacks on french, american interests and regional african allies. yes, facing the sequester, facing record deficits we have financial challenges of our own in this country but in this particular situation where our allies are doing the fighting,
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and where the hard work of reconciliation and a restoration of democracy is possible, it's wise to contribute and support the efforts by the french, by the malians and rexal african forces taking the fight to al qaeda. >> thank you both for your time and we greatly appreciate you joining us from this big trip you have made. thank you. coming up, the supreme court makes a decision on whether americans can sue under a law that allows the government to monitor overseas communications. it is our "news nation" "gut check." yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues... with three strains of good bacteria. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. okay why? more is better than less because if stuff is not le-- if there is more less stuff
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the bipartisan senate plan that he is supporting. he also went on to point out that republicans have a commitment to security triggers as it relates to a worker program in this country. joining me now live, nbc news senior political editor mark murray. mark, obviously, key point that mario rubio releasing a statement saying it's constructive and pointing out there's a difference in what he and the senators are bringing to the table and what the president has brought to the table. >> he used the term big differences. >> yes. >> not necessarily sure looking at the frame work they put together with what the obama white house has put out there's really big differences. of course, the devil's always in the details in this these things but john mccain, lindsay graham, barack obama have essentially been supporting the comprehensive immigration reform we have seen in legislation, past votes, over several years now so the pillars of reform are pretty clear. you have to get in the details
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but certainly graham and mccain are very big to passing immigration reform. >> what do we make that snoor rubio is not part of the group going to the white house? >> it is the interesting politics mix. rubio trying to sell immigration reform to conservative media outlets, people like rush limbaugh, folks on fox news and when you're trying to do that, you probably also can't be seen at the white house with president obama. so marco rubio had a delicate dance supporting reform. and he doesn't want to get too close to president obama. >> and the fact that mccain and graham are talking with the president, as well, on sequester. we know there are no meetings on tap for mcconnell or boehner. what do we make of that, mark? >> they don't want to see the defense cuts go in to effect. it was always thought that these looming defense cuts would be the ones that would force republicans to the negotiating table. that's true for folks like john mccain and lindsay graham but
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not for other republicans. seeing president obama bring in someone like a john mccain or lindsay graham to support this when it comes to the senate trying to avert the sequester and see if the senate can pass something and then you'll end up trying to see if the house can do the same. >> thank you very much. we'll have more on that meeting tomorrow to see the afternoon math of it all. coming up, manty toe back in the news. there's new reports some coaches and general managers are asking him if he's gay. we'll get the latest on when's going on there. but first, there's a lot going on today. the senate finance committee has approved the nomination of president obama's former chief of staff jack lew to be the new treasury secretary and now goes to the full senate for a vote. the senate voted earlier to end a republican filibuster against hagel's nomination to be defense secretary. final vote whether to confirm hagel could happen later today. those are the things we just thought you should know.
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the pope is preparing to give the final address tomorrow. the veteran still faces several controversies, of course. leading up to the conclave. claudio lavanga is live in rome. the details from the vatican on the pope an the future and, claudio, as you well know, the cloud over the conclave and a u.s. cardinal to participate despite the growing outcry of thousands that he should not be there. >> reporter: yes, tamron. this is cardinal mahony of los angeles to participate in the conclave tweeted today he is already in rome with 55 or 54 other cardinals. well, he has taken another decision aside -- taken the same
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decision as cardinal o'brien of scotland that decided not to come to rome to draw too much media attention towards himself as he announced yesterday, well, he was also engulfed in a separate kind of scandal. what he was -- he was accused of improper behavior toward a number of priests when he was supervising them and a dark cloud hanging over the vatican and the conclave some stage, this stage will start sometime maybe next week. tamron? >> claudio, you have the belief or a sense at the vatican releasing the details of the pope to get the attention off of what you call the dark cloud? >> reporter: well, maybe. i mean, there were very colorful details if you may. we have learned today that the pope benedict xvi addressed when he retires inside vatican walls as pope emeritus his holiness benedict xvi and wearing white
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but not a cape and not the famous red shoes that are typical of all popes. what it looks like, this has raised a few eyebrows because when he comes back here, two people addressed at holiness and you have to look down and watch out for the red shoes. tamron? >> thank you very much. greatly appreciate it. and digging out from a record setting blizzard tops the look at news around the "news nation" today. at least three people killed in snow-related accidents. hurricane force winds in texas and snow drifts up to seven feet high. the snowfall broke the 100-year-old record in wichita, kansas. more than 100,000 customers are without power. and new data shows the housing market recovering is accelerating, recovery is accelerating. new home sales in the u.s. jumped to the highest level in 4 1/2 years. experts say steady job creation
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and new record low mortgage rates are motivating people to buy homes. and new questions about manty toe's life. he is hoped to be drafted but it's said that coaches and general managers want the know if he's gay. he previously denied the rumors after he revealed an online relationship. it was a hoax, as you know. a man pretending to be a woman and many people asking why they would ask this. coming up, the "gut check" on the supreme court's decision to shut down partial lawsuits from americans on the government's expanded surveillance program. we'll tell you. res you may not w that your mouth is under attack, from food particles and bacteria. try fixodent. it helps create a food seal defense for a clean mouth and kills bacteria for fresh breath. ♪ fixodent, and forget it.
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big decision handed down by the supreme court today in a vote split down ideological lines. the court threw out an attempt
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by u.s. citizens to challenge a recent expansion to the government's wiretap program under the foreign surveillance act. pete williams joins us live. pete, the lawsuit of journalists, lawyers and civil rights including amnesty international as a part of this. what else can you tell me? >> reporter: right. those are people who said that we talked to the kinds of people we believe would be targeted under this program. you may remember it started in the bush administration and became known as the terrorist surveillance program and it was eventually approved by congress and the government said what we're going to do is listen to people overseas we think might be terrorists or hanging out with terrorists or talking to thrifts and these folks that sued said, well, they're our clients and talk to them as the matter of business and fear that the government's probably listening in and we're harmed by this. we have to take steps to avoid being intercepted. we have to go overseas now and stop talking to them on the phone or by e-mail and that's why they sued but today the supreme court on a 5-4 vote
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dividing on ideological lines as you say said that's not enough to get standing, to get the right to sue. they said it's all very c conjectural and because you take steps you need to take doesn't mean you manufacture the right to sue so it's going to be very hard for people to challenge this program because it's classified. you never know if you're intercepted. this was probably the best shot at finding some way to sue and the court said today it's not enough. >> wow. when an interesting decision and amazing to see you. like biblical behind you. the weather changing. >> reporter: the justices are pairing up two by two. i don't know what that means. >> thank you very much, pete. pretty cool. you held your composure. >> reporter: >> you can an expert. what does your gut tell you? do you agree with the supreme court's decision not to allow americans to challenge portions of this law? go to facebook.com/newsnation. curious to see what the audience
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will say about this. that does it for this edition of "news nation." thank you for joining us. and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we've shared what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. bp's also committed to america. we support nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. accomplishing even little things can become major victories. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. when i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred.
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